Three Whatcom residents in Nepal reported safe after earthquake

Three Whatcom County residents who were in Nepal when a massive earthquake struck the country Saturday, April 25, have been reported safe.

The trio — Doreen Richmond and Jim Lane of Lummi Island and Jeannie DeBari — were on a trek together.

Richmond borrowed a phone and called her mother Carmela in Long Island, New York, about 7 a.m. Thursday, April 30, to report all three were unhurt and in Kangchenjunga, which is on the border with India and far from the epicenter of the earthquake northwest of Kathmandu.

“They were there. They were safe. They felt some tremors,” Richmond’s sister Diane Lobasso said in an interview.

After the earthquake, Richmond’s family worked to contact relief workers and organizations in Nepal to get a picture of the travelers into their hands. In a conversation with family a few days before the earthquake, Lane said they “would be in the mountains and out of reach for two weeks,” Lobasso said.